What's your inspiration?

Being inspired requires one to love what they do. That doesn't mean that every day you wake up and are excited to go to work. Some days you might have to drag yourself in, but once you get there and dig in, you generate excitement.

Inspiration can come in many forms - maybe it's the project you're working on, maybe it's a coworker that you helped solve a problem, maybe it's listening to the mail delivery person about their family and what they are facing, and so much more. Being part of a community creating products for the marketplace that will make a difference in people's lives is what kept me inspired. The most important point I want to leave you with is that you must be resilient and be inspired in different ways.

When I decided to go into aerospace engineering, I knew that I wanted to “make a difference” but I wasn’t sure exactly what that difference would be. In graduate school, I conducted research on how to make fault-tolerant flight control systems to further improve the safety of flight. I wanted to save lives.

When I began working in my professional career, I still had the same goal in mind: I wanted to save lives. I have spent years supporting various engineering programs for the US Department of Defense, and working with the warfighter is what inspires me to get up in the morning. If I can help protect them as they conduct their missions, I will have achieved my primary mission.

This is what motivates me to keep going. I know who I am working for, and that “why” makes all of the difference.

What inspires me every morning to be an engineer is knowing there are problems that I’m needed to solve every day. I am an Engineering and Commissioning lead on a large capital project, so every day there are multiple issues that arise during the design/fabrication/commissioning of the project that my team relies on me to provide guidance for and help solve. Working with my team to come up with creative solutions to both technical and non-technical problems each day is the most satisfying part of being an engineer.

What do I do when I’m not feeling inspired? Honestly, I look at my paycheck…it always makes me feel better!

First and foremost, I'm inspired by helping people. At John Deere I was able to help farmers feed the world and live a better quality of life. So many engineering jobs help people to live better lives. The improvement in technology, in the medical field, literally saves lives.

On a funny note, on days when I felt disgruntled, I used to say, at least I make good money! Lots of people are disgruntled and can't say the same. That isn't inspirational enough to keep a person going for the long term, but it was a quick fix to get through a bad day here and there.

That is a great question. I have been an engineer for over 30 years and some days I just don’t get excited about going to work. I think the most important thing is to have a well-rounded, well-balanced life. Work cannot be everything, all the time. I might drudge through a morning, and then go for a lunchtime run or walk, and that exercise changes everything! Other times, it is the connections with people at work that pull me up – or maybe my friends after work. So while sometimes, time can make me inspired again, thinking about other things for a bit helps, but if not you may need to delve a bit deeper into what is going on. If you find yourself not being able to find a way to get excited, it is probably time to find new projects, or even, find a new job. I have changed positions within my company when I get to the point of "been there, done that."

For me what gets me going is constantly being challenged and learning new things both in engineering but also when it comes to business. I work at a firm that has a large variety of project types, size and types of materials we work with. Therefore no day is like the day before. I am constantly having to truly engineer things on a daily basis and challenge my problem solving abilities. This is what keeps me going to work each day. If my company / job didn’t challenge me I personally wouldn’t be inspired to come to work and I’d likely be looking to move to another company.

Engineers make a difference! I love that I am working on real world problems and providing solutions that can benefit people all over the world.

Even when times were tough during my career, I was always heartened by the fact that one bad day does not a career make. One bad day is normal in life. A few bad days are also normal in life. So, when the bad times happen, I step back, stay focused on the bigger picture, elevate my viewpoint, look forward, and remember that I have had many more good days than bad days!

It is difficult times that make the person. We are all shaped more by the tough times than the good times. It is important to remember those lessons, as they are born out of our personal struggle.

Feeling that I can make a small contribution to making the world be a better place is what inspires me.

Here are my suggestions to any budding engineer:

1. Motto - Be self-motivated and ready to learn. We learn something every day, knowingly and unknowingly. We experience a lot of positive and negative emotions every day and we learn to respond/ react/ adapt. So our genes/ DNA is storing experiences without our knowledge, so we are growing. So get up and start moving.
2. Financial independence – This means a lot. Imagine the possibilities and freedom that you will experience when you have the finances and you are self-funded
3. Imagine the contribution you are making to your family (family feels proud), society (other budding engineer girls look up to you), and country (adding to working women count) – immeasurable.

My kids inspire me to wake up every morning and be a successful engineer, because I am their role model and I would love to be strong and willing to continue working till I can't do more. I have two girls who are officers in the Army and they are always thanking me for being a good mom. Also working as an engineer itself motivates me to do more and learn more as well.